Zimbabwe
tense over anti-Mugabe protests call

HARARE (Reuters) - Internet campaigns
calling for protests against the 31-year rule of President Robert Mugabe on
Tuesday did not lead to any mass gatherings in Zimbabwe, where police have
threatened to crush any "Egypt-style" protests.

The two campaigns, on
Facebook and Twitter, were trying to start popular uprisings similar to ones
that toppled the long-serving leaders of Tunisia and Egypt and are
threatening Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Although there was no
unusual security deployment in Harare on Tuesday, private newspaper NewsDay
reported that soldiers in armoured troop carriers had been "sighted" on
Monday in traditionally restive townships in the capital.

The
Facebook campaign calling for a million citizen march and a separate one on
Twitter were aimed at bringing down Mugabe, 87, leader since independence
from Britain in 1980.

Zimbabweans in London were planning to burn an
effigy of Mugabe outside of the country's embassy in London in support of
the Facebook campaign.

But by mid-morning, there was no sign of any
gathering in the large park in Harare named as the protest venue by the
organisers operating under the banner FreeZimActivists.

Other parks,
normally packed with people, were largely empty, apparently over people's
fears of being caught up in any protest.

Zimbabwe's dominant state media
made no reference to the planned demonstration against Mugabe, who rights
groups say has used violence and intimidation to crush any
challenges.

Tensions have been running high in the past weeks, with
Mugabe's ZANU-PF pushing for early elections that officials from the rival
and governing partner MDC party have said could lead to a
bloodbath.

Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing government with Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change after the
controversial 2008 vote that led to violence and hundreds of thousands
fleeing the country.

Police officials -- who said they would crack down
on any protest -- were not immediately available for
comment.

Ordinary Zimbabweans are fearful of speaking publicly about the
call to protest, mindful of tight security laws with sweeping provisions
against anything that could be viewed as inciting violence or rebellion
against a constitutional order.

Last week, police arrested 46 people
in Harare as they watched videos of protests in the north African countries
and discussed possible demonstrations in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe plans to run
for another five year-term in elections he wants to call later this
year.

ZANU-PF has deployed massive shows of force, including using
helicopter gunships, against previous protests.

Critics say Mugabe
has used tough policing and vote-rigging to keep his grip on power despite
an economic crisis in the past decade that many blame on his mismanagement.

Security
crackdown deters Zim protests

Security crackdowns in Harare and Bulawayo have deterred any mass
action against the ZANU PF regime, with no sign of the mass protests that
have been encouraged over the past two weeks.

Online campaigns that
have been circulated by email and on the social networking website Facebook,
called on Zimbabweans to take part in a ‘Million Citizens March’ on Tuesday.
The protest was meant to start at Harare Gardens and spread countrywide. The
aim of the protest was to call for Robert Mugabe to step down from power,
just like similar civil uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

But
Harare was quiet on Tuesday, with only one report emerging of attempts at
protest action. The report sent by email, said police had foiled the start
of a small protest by trying to detain the leaders. No arrests were
reported. Facebook users supporting the ‘Million Citizen March’ meanwhile
wrote that protest action was foiled by the presence of soldiers. One man
wrote on Tuesday afternoon that “it looks like most uniformed troops have
been withdrawn from the streets. Just a few left in isolated corners. It
however remains very risky to attempt anything now as we are not sure if the
other people loitering in civilian clothes are truly civilians.”

SW
Radio Africa’s correspondent in the capital, Simon Muchemwa, said that the
day was “just a normal day,” explaining that “the heavy police presence we
have seen this week has clearly discouraged people from
protesting.”

Heavily armed soldiers and riot police were seen arriving in
military vehicles in the city centre near Harare gardens on Monday, while
water-cannons were also seen on the streets. Muchemwa said there were less
security officers on the streets on Tuesday, but explained how a number of
police officials had been patrolling the streets overnight.

“The
intimidation has been going on for some time. So I think people are not
confident about protests at the moment. It would be tantamount to putting
themselves in serious danger,” Muchemwa said.

An increased number of
military and police officials have also been witnessed in Bulawayo. SW Radio
Africa’s Lionel Saungweme reported on Tuesday that armed riot police and
military personnel have been patrolling in high density areas, and on Monday
intimidated a number of street vendors. Saungweme said that “this is all in
response to talk of Egypt style protests.”

Meanwhile according to the
Bulawayo Agenda civic group, two people were called in by Gwanda police for
merely discussing events in Libya. The two were driving from Bulawayo to
Gwanda when they picked up a passenger along the way while discussing the
subject. The passenger went on to report them at Gwanda Police Station,
leading to them being called in.

“The two were also called in to explain
why they were playing a Kwaito Music Tune called ‘Imot’ etshontshimali’-
meaning a car that steals money. This name has been given to the infamous
BMW cars being driven by traffic cops who are known for their asking for
bribes,” Bulawayo Agenda said.

Jittery
Mugabe puts security on high alert

HARARE - Zimbabwe's security
forces were put on high alert on Tuesday, mounting road blocks in major
roads leading into the city centre where they conducted vehicle and body
searches to thwart a “mass protest” organised by civic society to demand
freedoms.

The massive security checks came as
suspected members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) questioned
officials from Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) whom they suspect could
be organising an Egyptian style uprising in Zimbabwe.

But CiZC denied
that they had organised such a demonstration.

“We were visited by four
members of the police force from Avondale. We are not aware of any
demonstration by the organisation and I don’t think there is anything like
that. We have not been informed by the leaders of Crisis about the
demonstration. As secretariat, I think it’s just panic by a repressive
regime.

“The police claimed that they wanted to understand our operations
but we clearly told them that we knew they suspected us of organising demos
against the regime,” said a senior official of the organisation, Pedzisayi
Ruhanya.

CiZC spokesperson Phillip Pasirayi said they had never organised
a demo for Tuesday. He said probably the state panicked over e-mails which
originated from the United States and United Kingdom which claimed that
there was going to be a massive demonstration to force President Robert
Mugabe out of office.

“We are still consulting on a demonstration
against violence and human rights abuses. We are not aware of the one
pencilled for Tuesday,” said Pasirayi.

At a police roadblock mounted
opposite the entrance to the Harare Agriculture show along Samora Machel
Avenue, four people were taken away by security agents for allegedly
carrying a catapult and a screw driver, a taxi driver at the scene told the
Daily News. The Daily New saw the four being driven away

The taxi
driver said: “The four people seated under the tree were arrested after
being found with a catapult, while the other one was caught with a
screwdriver.”

A police armoured vehicle with police details was seen
by Daily News patrolling around the Africa Unity Square garden opposite
parliament at midday.

The police also mounted road blocks searching
people along Seke Road, opposite ABC auction and along Second Street
extension. Scores of people disembarking from public transport expressed
concern as police conducted body and vehicle searches.

Police
spokesperson, Wayne Bvudzijena, however expressed ignorance of the presence
of roadblocks around the capital or body searches that were being carried
out by the police and plain clothes security agents.

“I am not aware of
any roadblocks in the capital. I am not aware of that, I have to check,”
Bvudzijena said adding he was not aware that four people who were arrested
by police and plain clothes security details at a roadblock along Samora
Machel Avenue.

On Monday, hordes of soldiers patrolled the streets of
Harare after being dropped off by armoured vehicles at the Harare Gardens in
the capital, the proposed venue for the demonstration.

International
Socialist Organisation co-ordinator, Munyaradzi Gwisai, and 44 activists
were arrested and charged with treason last week for allegedly watching
videos showing mass uprisings that ousted former Egypt’s President Hosni
Mubarak and Ben Ali of Tunisia.

More
activists arrested as Mugabe hits panic button

Robert Mugabe’s regime appears to have hit the panic button, having
ordered the arrest of a total of 93 activists in the last 2 weeks alone.
With street protests having toppled regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, the ZANU
PF leader, who has been in power for over 30 years, seems determined to
pre-empt any people driven revolution in Zimbabwe.

It started in
Nyanga North two weeks ago when police arrested the local MDC-T MP and joint
chairman of the national constitution making exercise, Douglas Mwonzora,
plus 23 villagers aligned to his party. The cooked-up charges related to
public violence, but even though all 24 were granted bail the Mugabe regime
invoked controversial legislation to suspend the bail order.

On
Friday MDC-99 faction leader Job Sikhala was arrested by heavily armed
police who initially claimed they wanted to question him over statements
made on his Facebook page. The former MP for St Mary’s was then accused of
being behind planned street protests set for 1st March. Police later charged
Sikhala with kidnapping, alleging this is linked to a diamond deal that went
wrong.

On the 19th February police units broke into a meeting in
Harare and arrested former MDC MP Munyaradzi Gwisai and 45 activists who
were watching video footage of protests in the Middle East and North Africa.
A discussion on the protests was later held before police disrupted the
meeting. The regime charged them with treason last week and promptly
tortured the alleged ring leaders, including Gwisai.

Meanwhile MDC-T
spokesman Nelson Chamisa was in court on Tuesday to show solidarity with
Gwisai and the 44 activists being detained. A scheduled hearing for Monday
was cancelled after the trial magistrate failed to show up. The meeting he
cited as an excuse was in fact held with Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku,
who allegedly ‘summoned’ the magistrate for unexplained reasons. On Tuesday
the case was postponed to the 7th of March.

Chamisa told us “As the MDC
we are totally opposed to the harassment of citizens. In as much as we don’t
agree with Gwisai and his views, Sikhala who has his own views, possibly his
own party, we feel there is no justification for persecuting them for
holding their views. In fact this is what makes the garden beautiful. When
you have different flowers, different colours that make politics much more
glorious.”

On Monday the pressure group Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA & MOZA) released a statement saying 21 people including 7 of its
members were arrested from their houses in Bulawayo while two were badly
beaten. The charges are not clear and they are being denied medical
treatment. Some of the activists were loaded into a white van and taken to
Western Commonage police station in Mpopoma south.

Also on Monday
there was the case of MDC youth activist Patrick Kamanga, who his party says
was abducted Monday morning by a group of ZANU PF thugs in the Magaba area
of Mbare in Harare. “Kamanga was at work in the area when ZANU PF youths,
armed with an assortment of weapons, pounced on him and started attacking
before they abducted him and took him to a secluded place in the
area.”

There was relief for the MDC-T on Tuesday with reports that
Kamanga was released in the evening; “Working on a tip-off, Mbare’s Matapi
police officers made a follow up, tracking down the thugs from their base in
Mbare. However, no one was arrested,” the MDC-T statement said.Kamanga
reports being moved from Mbare 3 Musika to Koffman plot where the youths
further assaulted him on the feet telling him to give them information on
the whereabouts of the Mbare district executive members.

So February and
March of 2011 seem to be continuing with the violence and intimidation that
has been evident around the country since the beginning of the year, and
which was also unleashed on Harare in January. ZANU PF youths, bused in from
rural areas, created chaos in Mbare assaulting perceived MDC-T supporters
and ZANU PF MP and Youth Minister, Savior Kasukuwere, was implicated as
organising the violence from his house.

Another Zim
dissident arrested, tortured, lawyers say

Police
have arrested and tortured another dissident critic of Zimbabwe President
Robert Mugabe's regime as the government escalated a clampdown against a
perceived plot to stage mass demonstrations against the leader, lawyers said
late on Monday.

Job Sikhala, the leader of a small offshoot of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was
arrested on Friday in connection with an alleged plan to stage
demonstrations like those in Egypt in a bid to overthrow the 87-year-old
Mugabe, a statement from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
said.

Sikhala had a dislocated pelvis following assault by police
interrogators and had been denied medical treatment, the group said. He was
allegedly being held in filthy and degrading conditions in a police station
on Harare's outskirts.

Observers say Mugabe and the small coterie of
supporters around him have ordered a countrywide operation to squash any
signs of unrest they fear could spread from the turbulence in North
Africa.

The lawyers group said the charges against Sikhala had been
changed from fraud to kidnapping and mobilising people for revolt, and his
case was being prosecuted by a police unit that had nothing to do with
ordinary criminal prosecutions.

Lawyers filed an urgent application
on Monday for his release, saying there was no basis for his arrest and he
was unlawfully detained.

Defied court ordersEarlier on Monday, the
organisation said police had defied court orders to provide medical help to
12 activists accused of planning an uprising against Mugabe.

The
dozen accused were part of a larger group of around 45 lawyers, students and
trade unionists who were raided by police on February 19 during a private
meeting on the situation in Egypt.

They all now stand accused of treason,
which carries the death penalty. They have been in custody for 10 days, and
complained of various abuses and torture. Western envoys in the country have
denounced the charges as manifestly excessive.

A Harare magistrate
was told last week that the 12 were lashed on the soles of their feet with
broomsticks by secret police interrogators attempting to force them to admit
they were plotting Mugabe's overthrow by mass demonstrations.

He
halted the hearing and ordered that they be examined and treated, and for a
report to be submitted when the court reconvened on Monday.

However, the
men have not been treated, beyond being given general painkillers, their
lawyer Rose Hanzi said.

Lawyers are also pressing for the release of
Douglas Mwonzora from two weeks in custody, a lawyer and MDC Member of
Parliament who is also the co-chairperson of the national committee to draft
a new constitution. He and 23 others were arrested in eastern Zimbabwe where
they were holding a rally. Mwonzora had not been tortured, the group
said.

Mugabe has been in power for 31 years, presiding over a country
which descended into economic chaos and hyper-inflation, and widespread
intimidation, brutality and killings after the presidential election of
2008. -- Sapa-dpa

WOZA members arrested, beaten

Press statement

Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA)

Seven members, two beaten, all spending night in custody
in Bulawayo and were denied food brought in by relatives.

At
noon, today 28 February 2011, three Men of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) members
were arrested in Entumbane at a member’s house. Police came into the house
where the members were meeting. They made the men present; numbering about
15, hold out their hands. They then arrested Proud Pandeya, Noah Mapfuma who
they said had black hands, and according to them this is a sure sign that
they smoke cannabis. At this point Gift Nkomo walked in and was also
subsequently arrested. They were taken by these plain-clothes police
officers to their local police station. One of the police officers fisted
Proud four times in the face when they were arrested. They were released
them after 2 hours. At five pm, police officers then came to re-arrest them
and tried to arrest a fourth member who was not at home. The were said to be
being taken to Bulawayo Central Police station for questioning but the
feeding team could not locate them there.

At 4pm today,
another 4 members were arrested, three women and one male. They were
arrested in the Mabutweni suburb of Bulawayo at the home of Sitshiyiwe
Ngwenya. They were sitting in the house and counting burial society
contributions. The four who include Joyce Ndebele, Moreblessing Dube, one a
nursing mother, and the male member Kholwani Ndlovu were arrested by plain
clothed police officers from Western Commonage police station. They were
loaded into a white van and taken to Western Commonage police station in
Mpopoma south. The lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
was unable to see them as they were being relocated to Bulawayo Central
police station.

Relatives, who sacrificed to buy food at a food
outlet, as there was no electricity to cook food, arrived at the police
station to give the food to the activists but were detained for an hour.
Police Officer George Levison Ngwenya, threatened to arrest them for
bringing ‘bought’ food but another police officer told them to leave with
the food. Kholwani was obviously in pain from being severely beaten and him
and the three women arrested at Mabutweni were seen by their relatives in
the Law and Order department and were being made to answer profile questions
and were due to be relocated for a third time to Sauerstown police station
along the airport road.

WOZA leaders wish to express concern for
members arrested and for the two male members beaten by police. We also
express concern about the whereabouts of the 3 members arrested in Entumbane
who were not to be found at Bulawayo Central police
station.

WOZA is currently consulting members on the introduction
of a development programme to be entitled Demand Dignity - Demand
Development. This programme is based on the works of Mahatma Ghandi who
combined an obstructive and constructive programme to mobilise independence
to the Indian people. The CONSTRUCTIVE (productive and practical) Program
emphasises on "cooperating with good" whiles the OBSTRUCTIVE (disruptive and
defiant) Program's emphasis is on "resisting
evil."

History have
shown us that while nonviolent movements have successfully liberated people
from repressive regimes in almost all cases the same problems of poverty and
other forms of structural violence have returned to undermine the gains of
the struggle. This is not because Nonviolence doesn't "work" but because
Nonviolence campaigns or obstructive campaigns need to have a Constructive
Program to make them complete and deliver permanent, constructive
change.

So WOZA/MOZA have resolved to begin a Constructive
Program for members so that they can see positive alternatives to
oppression, let them begin to act out the future, become productive and
practical. As we do this we will also escalate our demand for social
justice. WOZA and MOZA have been conducting some of these activities as part
of our fight for freedom and our demand for social justice, a new
constitution and a better life – we have been trying to see the Zimbabwe of
our dreams.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A Zimbabwean court says 45 suspects facing treason
charges must stay in jail until their hearing next week to give prosecutors
time to prepare the case against them.

State prosecutors said Tuesday
they were not ready to present their case against the group arrested last
month for attending a lecture on North African anti-government protests.
They are accused of plotting an Egyptian-style uprising in Zimbabwe. The
group says it was an academic lecture and denies wrongdoing. Treason carries
a possible death sentence.

Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba says he needs more
time to prepare before the March 7 hearing.

Defence lawyers say the
suspects are not guilty and should be released immediately. Lawyers say some
suspects were tortured in police custody.

Lawyers Fight For Sikhala's Release

HRD’s
Alert

28 February 2011

LAWYERS FIGHT FOR SIKHALA’S RELEASE

Lawyers representing MDC 99 leader Job Sikhala have filed an urgent
chamber application in the High Court seeking his release from police custody
where he has been incarcerated since his arrest on Friday 25 February
2011.

Sikhala
was arrested while
at his shop in Chitungwiza by four uniformed police officers and two unknown men
in plain clothes who advised him that the police wanted to re-record statements
in a fraud matter which he reported early this month.

Upon
arrival at St Mary’s Police Station in Chitungwiza, Sikhala was then advised
that he was under arrest and was detained in connection with minerals and that
statements would be recorded ON Saturday 26 February 2011.

At
the time of his arrest, the MDC 99 leader was informally told that his arrest
was linked to a purported one million men march which the police said was
scheduled to take place on 1 March 2011 in a bid to topple the government
through the “Egyptian style “andthat
Sikhala was going around the country mobilising people to
participate.

But
on Saturday 26 February 2011, Sikhala was advised that he was being charged with
kidnapping or unlawful detention as defined in the Criminal Law (Codification
and Reform) Act, and was taken to CID Minerals Unit for the recording of a
warned and cautioned statement and thereafter returned to St Mary’s Police
Station for his continued detention. The alleged kidnapping is said to have
happened at Zengeni Shopping Center in Mutare, Manicaland Province on 19
February 2011 but was only reported six days later in Chitungwiza, Mashonaland
East Province

It
is still not clear as to why the matter is being handled by CID Minerals Unit as
the kidnapping offence has nothing to do with minerals.

It
is further not clear as to why the matter was reported in Harare and not Mutare
where the offence is alleged to have been committed.

In the urgent chamber application which was filed at the High Court
on Monday 28 February 2011, Sikhala’s lawyers of Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni
cited the co-ministers of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone, Police
Commissioner-General Augustine
Chihuri and the Detective
Superintendent Churu, the
Officer In Charge of CID Minerals Unit.

In their application, the lawyers argued that the MDC 99 leader
was
unlawfully arrested and detained and continues to be in unlawful
detention.

The
lawyers say Sikhala has been charged
with trumped up charges of kidnapping or unlawful detention as defined in
Section 93(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 and
there is no reasonable suspicion that the former St Mary’s legislator committed
any criminal offence and his arrest was premeditated with the sole intention to
harass him.

In
a startling disclosure, the lawyers revealed that Sikhala dislocated his pelvis
when he was assaulted during his arrest by one of the police detectives and is
in need of urgent medical attention.

Despite
requests for medical treatment the lawyers say the police have denied their
client such services.

The
lawyers also protested against the deplorable cell conditions under which
Sikhala is being detained which they said were filthy, inhuman and degrading
such that no human being should be incarcerated in such
conditions.

In
their draft order the lawyers want the police to immediately release Sikhala or
alternatively place him before a Magistrate sitting as a remand court to
determine his fate failing
which they should forthwith release him from custody and thereafter no
Magistrate should entertain the matter.

Two unidentified plain clothes policemen served Madhuku with the summons
at Harare Magistrates’ Court, where he was attending the case of 45 social and
human rights activists who have been charged with
treason.

The police want Madhuku to appear in court on 16 March 2011 to answer
charges of contravening Section 24 (1) of the Public Order and Security Act
(POSA) [Chapter 9:15] in that he
allegedly failed to comply with an order given by the regulatory
authority.

The police allege that Madhuku unlawfully organised a demonstration on
1 November 2006 at Africa Unity Square without notifying the
police.

Meanwhile, lawyers were on Tuesday night searching police stations in
Harare to locate the whereabouts of student leader, Tafadzwa
Mugwadi, who was reportedly arrested by the police on yet unclear
charges.

U.N. urges
Zimbabwe to release detained activists

GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - The United
Nations' top human rights official called on Tuesday for the release of
dozens of activists arrested in Zimbabwe for discussing the uprisings in
Egypt and Tunisia.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
said some of those arrested and charged with treason, from the International
Socialist Organisation and other social justice and human rights groups, had
alleged they were beaten in detention.

"The arrests appear to be part
of a growing crackdown on civil society and members of the political
opposition, and are a clear sign that the establishment of a consolidated
democracy in Zimbabwe is still very far from assured," she said in a
statement .

Police in Zimbabwe said they arrested 46 people in Harare
last month as they watched videos of North African protests and discussed
possible demonstrations in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe, 87, has
held power for 31 years.

Pillay, a former United Nations war crimes
judge, has spoken out in support of protesters in North Africa and the
Middle East and said a crackdown against demonstrators in Libya could amount
to crimes against humanity.

She said on Tuesday the uprisings had made it
clear "there is no true democracy without freedom of expression and
assembly".

"It is therefore both deeply ironic and disturbing that, in
Zimbabwe, activists are being arrested and mistreated simply for discussing
North Africans' efforts to bring about change through largely peaceful
protests," she said.

Calls via social media websites for protests on
Tuesday against Mugabe's 31-year-old rule did not lead to mass gatherings in
Zimbabwe, where police have threatened to crush "Egypt-style"
protests.

The campaigns on Facebook and Twitter were aimed at starting
popular uprisings similar to those that toppled the presidents of Tunisia
and Egypt and are threatening Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A Zimbabwean court says 45 suspects facing treason
charges must stay in jail until their hearing next week to give prosecutors
time to prepare the case against them.

State prosecutors said Tuesday
they were not ready to present their case against the group arrested last
month for attending a lecture on North African anti-government protests.
They are accused of plotting an Egyptian-style uprising in Zimbabwe. The
group says it was an academic lecture and denies wrongdoing. Treason carries
a possible death sentence.

Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba says he needs more
time to prepare before the March 7 hearing.

Defence lawyers say the
suspects are not guilty and should be released immediately. Lawyers say some
suspects were tortured in police custody.

Cops
secure release of MDC activist

HARARE - MDC activist,
Patrick Kamanga, 26, who was abducted and assaulted by Zanu PF thugs at a
torture base yesterday morning, was released in the evening after the
police’s intervention. Working on a tip-off, Mbare’s Matapi police officers
made a follow up, tracking down the thugs from their base in Mbare.
However, no one was arrested. Kamanga said he was abducted and kept hostage
at Mbare 3 market stalls where he was interrogated on the whereabouts of the
MDC members. He said they asked him where he was staying and why he
disappeared from Mbare in the last two weeks. He said they moved him from
Mbare 3 Musika to Koffman plot where they further assaulted him on the feet
asking him to volunteer information on the whereabouts of the Mbare district
executive members. The police from Matapi Police Station rescued him later
in the evening and he managed to receive treatment for injuries
sustained.Meanwhile, Rowdy and drunk Zanu PF supporters today disrupted
a meeting being chaired by Bulawayo Central MP, Hon. Dorcas Sibanda at
Bulawayo hotel where the MP was collecting oral evidence on the operations
of Mpilo General Hospital. There were disturbances at the hotel when Zanu PF
supporters stormed the hotel and started disrupting the proceedings.The
police arrived after some minutes but did not chase the mob. Instead they
took the MP to Bulawyo Central Police Station and accused her of holding a
political meeting at a public institution, without notifying the police or
Zanu PF’s Cain Mathema. Hon. Sibanda was detained for an hour before being
released without any charge and told that the police had saved her from the
Zanu PF mob."The Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr. Henry Madzorera
was aware of the meeting. What is surprising is that the police did not
treat me as a complainant because they detained me in and left the Zanu PF
youths without question,” said Hon. Sibanda.

Mugabe
‘executed’ outside Embassy

President Mugabe was strung up from
a tree outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London today at a Vigil in support of an
attempt to stage an anti-Mugabe demonstration in
Harare.

Security forces were beefed up to
deter protesters from gathering at Harare gardens but in
London some 50 people attended our mock
execution of the aging tyrant.

We were joined by a Reuters news
team, apart from other journalists, and passers-by stopped to take photos with
their mobile phones. Bus drivers hooted in solidarity as Terence Mafuva in our
Mugabe mask and a white shroud dangled from the branch of a maple tree
(discreetly supported by a small stool).

Vigi supporters wore yellow bandanas
saying ‘Robert Mugabe for the sake of
Zimbabwe: Please hang’ and displayed posters reading ‘Mugabe must go!’ and
‘87 years old – 31 years in power’ while singing songs mocking the despot, to
the accompaniment of drumming.

There were passionate speeches denouncing him. Martin Chinyanga of
the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group said to applause that Mugabe’s time was coming
to an end. For his part, Takwana Jonga of the Zimbabwe Action Group said Zanu PF
was the enemy of the people of Zimbabwe responsible for the death of more than 5 million Zimbabweans since
1980 (by violence, neglect and poverty).

The Vigil was pleased to get a message of encouragement from Passop,
the Zimbabwe support group in South Africa, who were holding a solidarity demonstration outside Parliament in
Cape Town.

The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from
14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in
Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October
2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are
held in Zimbabwe: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Vigil
co-ordinator

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe
Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to
18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue
until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe.
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk

Jabulani
Sibanda shuts down schools for ZANU PF rally

Notorious war vet Jabulani Sibanda has forced a district to shut
down its schools and made teachers attend his pro-ZANU PF rally, where he
said members of the MDC would be killed, the local MDC-T spokesman has said.
Sibanda had reportedly been to Zaka and Bikita intimidating locals, before
appearing in Gutu.

MDC-T spokesman for Gutu West district, Stanley
Manguma, said Sibanda resorted to forcing teachers and school children to
attend his rally after two others were poorly attended.

It’s
understood only 12 ZANU PF supporters attended the first meeting, and around
20 people attended the following one. Fed up with this Sibanda approached a
local chief who is a staunch ZANU PF supporter, who then instructed headmen
and headmasters to close schools, Manguma explained.

The teachers and
school children then attended the rally at Matizha Business Centre on
Monday, and the numbers of those present ballooned to around 600. The school
children were then dismissed and Sibanda began making dangerous threats,
including saying that people will be killed this year.

“This shows ZANU
PF is already in the mood for an election. They are telling people ‘we are
going to have an election whether the MDC wants it or not ,’” Manguma
explained.

Sibanda’s remarks have left locals and MDC members in the area
living in fear. His campaign is a roll-over from last year where he went
about disrupting learning, by ordering teachers and school children to
attend his rallies in other parts of Masvingo province. He also operated a
terror tour of Mashonaland Central and Manicaland.

Despite calls by
the MDC-T for Sibanda to be arrested, Zimbabwe’s partisan police have
instead been accompanying him on his operations and he remains free to
intimidate locals and cause havoc.

Zanu (PF)
Bus In Supporters For Mugabe Anti-Sanctions Launch

Harare, March 01, 2011 - A major bus company in Harare has
suspended its regular trips to South Africa after it was hired by Zanu (PF)
out to ferry the thousands of party supporters expected to attend the
anti-sanctions lobby campaign by President Robert Mugabe on
Wednesday.

Pioneer Bus Company suspended its Harare-Messina service to
accommodate the Zanu (PF) request.

“We don’t have the Harare-Messina
service this week, all our buses have been hired for the sanctions event,”
said a bus official who would not give his name.

Asked whether this
was done voluntarily or it was a case of business coercion.

The
official said, “I wouldn’t know but we have an instruction to communicate to
our passengers that the service has been suspended because buses are on
hire.”

Pioneer buses have regular clientele which travels on a daily
basis to Messina to buy goods for re-sell in Harare.

Mugabe is
expected to launch the anti-sanctions lobby campaign On Wednesday morning in
Harare. Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo told Radio VOP that his party had
“activated its machinery” to ensure that people get to Harare for the
launch.

When asked to explain what he meant by that, he said, “We are
going to use the regular means of transport that we have used in the past
and we have also hired buses to ferry people.”

Mugabe is also
expected to announce a wide range of retaliatory sanctions against companies
owned by the US, EU and other western countries as a measure of forcing to
remove the targeted sanctions imposed on him and his inner
circle.

Mugabe threatened takeover moves on Nestle and Zimplats in an
address on the occasion to mark his 87th birthday last weekend.

SA
court defers ruling on Zim farms case

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday
postponed ruling on an appeal by the government against an earlier court
order that it compensates a South African farmer for farms lost in
Zimbabwe.

The farmer, Crawford von Abo, lost his 14 farms in Zimbabwe
when they were expropriated under President Robert Mugabe’s controversial
land reform programme.

The High Court ruled last year that Pretoria
should have provided diplomatic protection for Von Abo’s properties and that
because it had not done so it should compensate the farmer for his
loses.

Mugabe has over the past eight years seized white-owned farms for
re-distribution to landless blacks in a programme he says was meant to
correct a colonial and unjust land tenure system that reserved the best
arable land for whites while blacks were crowded on poor soils.

But
veteran leader’s chaotic and often violent land reform programme also saw
several farms owned by foreigners and protected under bilateral trade
agreements between Zimbabwe and other countries seized without
compensation.

However South Africa and Zimbabwe only signed an investment
protection agreement in November 2009, well after Von Abo had lost his
properties. -- ZimOnline

Chihuri
to face MPs who want answers on violence

A much anticipated standoff between the Police Commissioner General
and law makers will take centre stage on Thursday, when the country’s top
cop is expected to appear before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence
and Home Affairs.

Augustine Chihuri is set to be grilled by MPs about
the political violence that has rocked many parts of the country, including
some parts of Harare, since the beginning of 2011.

While legislators
from ZANU PF are expected to go easy on Chihuri, he is certain to get a hard
time from MPs from the two MDC formations. The MDC parties allege the police
force, under Chihuri, has been executing it’s duties in a partisan manner
when dealing with cases of politically-motivated violence, arresting only
members of their party.

The police Commissioner General was initially
expected to appear before the committee on Monday but postponed it to
Wednesday as he was meeting with Robert Mugabe.

Committee chairman
Paul Madzore, an MP from the MDC-T is quoted as saying Chihuri has now been
in touch requesting a further postponement to Thursday.

On Wednesday
Chihuri will attend the launch of ZANU PF’s anti-sanctions drive, where
Robert Mugabe is expected to once again warn British, Dutch and US companies
that they risk their businesses being seized in retaliation for the targeted
sanctions on the ruling elite.

An MDC-T legislator told us he would be
interested to see if Chihuri does finally make it to parliament to be
quizzed by the MP’s.

‘If he decides he is above the law and refuses to
appear before the committee, he will face charges of contempt of court and
can be sent to prison,’ the MP said.

There is a precedence to this
when in 2004 Roy Bennett, the MDC-T treasurer-general, was jailed for 15
months by parliament for pushing Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a
heated debate.

‘The country needs answers to this senseless violence and
Chihuri’s appearance will give the committee an opportunity to ask him why
he has failed to deal with this rot. We hope for his own good he will appear
or parliament will be forced to take action against him,’ the MP
added.

But observers say the chances of Chihuri facing any punishment is
extremely remote, given that the MDC have no real power in the government
and that Mugabe is firmly in control of all the security
services.

Analyst Luke Zunga said in terms of violence, Chihuri has got
no defence as to why the police force is not protecting life and property or
enforcing the laws and maintaining peace in Zimbabwe.

‘The ZRP is
still largely vicious and corrupt. Political opponents of ZANU PF continue
to suffer excessive and recurrent waves of brutalities, abductions,
unwarranted violations of privacy and extra-judicial killings, bodily injury
and intimidation.

‘Many of these incidents have been documented and there
is hard evidence against the way the partisan police operate. I hope the MPs
are up for the task to get to the bottom of this violence,’ Zunga added.

Senior U.S. State Department Official Visits Zimbabwe

Harare, March 1,
2011: Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Ms. Susan Page, is in Zimbabwe for a
four-day visit.

During her visit,
Page will be in Harare and also Bulawayo, meeting separately with senior
government officials, representatives from the business community, and civil
society leaders. Her visit to Zimbabwe reflects the importance the United States
Government places on engaging a broad array of Zimbabwean leaders to foster
bilateral economic and diplomatic relations.

Go-ahead
for Gukurahundi monument

A group
representing victims of political violence has received permission to erect
a monument to commemorate the deaths of thousands that were killed during
the Gukurahundi massacres in the eighties.

Last month, the Zimbabwe
Victims of Organised Violence Trust (Zivovt), made an application to the
Matobo Rural District Council (MRDC) for the monument. They said it is
something that is badly needed, because the story needs to be told after the
many years that ZANU PF has been fighting to silence the Gukuranhundi
issue.

Zivovt wants the structure to be built at the former Bhalawge army
camp in Matobo, which was used as a torture base during the era. Having now
received the approval, the organisation will meet to discuss details. They
have already said they want to approach local artists to work on the
creation.

SW Radio Africa Bulawayo correspondent, Lionel Saungweme, says
if the statue is set up it will be an unprecedented development and a thorn
in the flesh of Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF.

“It will mean that the
Gukurahundi victims will have a remembrance in the lifetime of a party that
has actually caused the demise of those people,” he said, “I think they will
get resistance from ZANU PF and the resistance will be against both MRDC and
Zivovt. This is because ZANU PF has failed to acknowledge or show remorse on
the atrocities of the Gukurahundi victims,”

The monument will be a test
for the government. Last year it outlawed a Gukurahundi art exhibition by
Bulawayo artist Owen Maseko, saying it was prohibited because it was a
‘tribal-biased event’.

The Gukurahundi massacres saw tens of thousands of
innocent Zimbabweans killed by soldiers loyal to the Mugabe regime, in the
mid eighties. Last year, the Gukurahundi massacres were officially
classified as genocide by the internationally recognized group Genocide
Watch.

Banned
Exhibition Finds Reception In Europe

Harare,
March 1, 2011—Reflections, a photo exhibition banned in Zimbabwe, has found
audience in Europe and is being exhibited in Geneva, Switzerland during the
16th session of the UN Human Rights Council which started
Tuesday.

The session runs up to March 25.

Reflections is a
collection of photos of people brutalized in the political violence during
the period 2007—2008.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights);
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition regional office in South Africa and the Geneva
based Zimbabwe Advocacy Office have teamed up to exhibit the photos warning
the international community of the violence that will grip the country in
the event of elections.

By bringing the Reflections Exhibition to the
UN and international organizations in Geneva, Zimbabwe’s NGOs aim to provide
direct evidence of the state-sponsored human rights violations in the last
decade.

In the run up to the Geneva exhibition, the photo exhibition was
held in European capitals such as London (UK); Dublin (Ireland); Budapest
(Hungary) and Brussels (Belgium) among others. The exhibition was well
received according to Dewa Mavhinga, Crisis regional coordinator.

The
exhibition comes at a time there has been a new wave of violence across the
country and will provide a visual reminder to the international community of
the continuing need to remain engaged in supporting democratic reform and
transitional justice in Zimbabwe.

ZimRights has been struggling to
exhibit the photos in other parts of the country with the police saying the
images have a potential of inciting violence.

Last year, police
raided the Gallery Delta in Harare and seized photographic material that
ZimRights has been collecting since 2007.

The photos were returned after
the High Court ordered the police to release the pictures.

Zimbabweans
Turn to Indigenous Medicine

BULUWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb
28, 2011 (IPS) - Zimbabwe's government recently announced that the country
had run out of the critical painkiller morphine. It was just the latest
development in a debilitating health care crisis that has seen hospitals
turn away patients because of drug shortages.

An underfunded health
sector has been in rapid decline in Zimbabwe, where shortages of medicines
are the rule and health professionals have left the country in droves over
the past decade to seek better salaries abroad.

In the absence of even a
basic drug such as paracetamol, desperate patients like 44-year-old asthma
sufferer Susan Pamire have turned to traditional herbs.

While
traditional healers have long retained a rural client base, urban residents
are now also turning to them.

"Traditional herbs have become the sole
alternative for me, even though I still prefer medicine from the clinic,"
said Pamire, who has also battled hypertension for years.

"Better
these visits to the inyanga [the local name for a traditional healer] than
wait for tablets from the clinic, which I know are not available, or else I
would die waiting," the mother of five told IPS.

People like Janet
Dliwayo, who has long experience harvesting herbs in rural Matebeleland, are
able to operate in a thriving herbal market in Bulawayo’s Makokoba
township.

"The medicines I sell here come from my rural area, where not
everyone knows which tree or herb treats what," Dliwayo
says.

Sibangilizwe Dube, a member of the Zimbabwe National Traditional
Healers Association (ZINATHA), says the government's admission that it is
failing to provide medicine points to a need to take traditional healers
more seriously.

"There is still cynicism among some doctors who think
we cannot fill the gap by providing life-saving herbs and medicines," Dube
said.

"Yet we know there are researchers who come into the country and
steal our knowledge to make drugs overseas. I do not understand it," Dube
said.

International researchers have over the past decade looked to the
use made of the rich biodiversity by traditional healers in Zimbabwe and
elsewhere in Southern Africa, for promising leads to develop treatments for
some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

The World Health Organization
(WHO), which has taken an active role in facilitating communication between
medical scientists, public health authorities and traditional healers,
estimates that up to 80 percent of Zimbabweans rely on herbal remedies for
their health care.

These numbers are true for many countries across
Africa, says Dr Banele Gama, a Zimbabwean medical practitioner working in
South Africa.

"What people generally want is better access to medicine
and health care. If they can get this outside of hospitals and at a
low-cost, I believe governments should encourage the traditional
practitioners whose indigenous knowledge of herbs cannot be dismissed," Gama
told IPS.

The near-absence of standardisation and proper regulation means
the use of traditional medicines poses some risks. Professional health
bodies in Zimbabwe have decried the illegal importation of alternative
medicines from as far afield as China.

This month, the Traditional
Medical Council of Zimbabwe which is registered under the Ministry of Health
announced that it was pushing for the toughening of laws that govern the
importation of traditional medicines, as it had noted an alarming increase
in the smuggling of medicinal herbs into the country.

Healers within
the country also need to regulation. Dr Rashai Mbudzi, head of the
Traditional Medical Council of Zimbabwe, told state media this month that
there is a need for traditional medical practitioners to formalise their
operations if they are to effectively participate in the health services
sector.

"We encourage traditional medical practitioners to register with
us to carry out research on their operations. This will enhance the quality
of their practice and also encourage them to have areas of specialisation so
that they can easily network with hospitals," Mbudzi said.

Banks to
return SA coins

LOCAL banks are set to return R8 million worth of coins to
South Africa that they have been holding onto since last year because
retailers have resisted buying them to ease change shortages that consumers
have long complained about.President of the Bankers Association of
Zimbabwe Mr John Mushayavanhu yesterday said they had been sitting on the
coins for nearly eight months now.A shortage of rand and US coins in
circulation means people often spend more than they intend to in shops so
that their bills can become round figures.Shops also give out credit notes
indicating how much change customers are owed, but these are only redeemable
in the specific branches where they are given.The Consumer Council of
Zimbabwe has said this has contributed to the high cost of living in
Zimbabwe as people spend more than they want to.Banks had sought to ease the
problem by buying coins in South Africa, which they offered retailers at
prevailing rand-US dollar exchange rates, but the latter appear not to be
interested.Said Mr Mushayavanhu: "We have already received app-roval from
the South African Central Bank and we will be returning the coins anytime
now."Mr Denford Mberi of the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe is on record
as saying the banks were trying to profit from the coins by selling them
higher than the exchange rate.Many Harare retailers have maintained an
artificial rand-US coins exchange rate of 10:1.This means R5 is
equivalent to 50 US cents.The actual rate would have R5 at around 71 USc as
the South African currency has long since gained on the greenback.Oddly,
Harare's informal traders apply more realistic rates and even commuter
omnibus operators have tried to give people value for their money in coin
terms by charging a normal trip at R4 or 50 USc.Street vendors also have
coins and these are easily changing hands, a development that has stoked
people's fury as to why formal establishments cannot give them a fair deal
as well.Harare retailers have failed to explain why they can apply the
prevailing rate quite easily on notes, but not on smaller denominations and
for change purposes.AfroFood Julius Nyerere Way branch said they only
applied prevailing rates to amounts of R50 or more, but would not explain
why this was so.TM Mbuya Nehanda Street, OK Robson Manyika and Spar Joina
City also had no reason as to why they undervalued South African
coins.Some of these retailers have branches in Bulawayo where similar
problems are not being experienced.Mr Mberi referred all questions to a
Mr Ndebele at Truworths' headquarters in Harare, who was not available for
comment.Finance Minister Tendai Biti has for months said Zimbabwe will soon
get US coins, but these have not been seen.People have also questioned
why the finance minister is prepared to bring in coins from across the
Atlantic Ocean when the South African option is readily available much
closer home.The public has called for legislation to be put in place to
force retailers to be fair."The Government must make it illegal for this
daylight profiteering which these shops are practising."They are forcing
us to buy useless things like sweets and if you add up all the money that
people are forced to use, you will find that they have extra sales of over
US$100 in each shop a day," railed Mr Cosmas Dumba of Warren Park who had
been forced to take lollipops as change after buying a cough mixture in OK
First Street.The situation is much better in Bulawayo where the actual
exchange rate is applied.For instance, kombis in Bulawayo generally
charge R3 per trip and coins are readily available as change in just almost
every shop.

Villagers
benefit from wetland conservation

ZVISHAVANE - Villagers in Chebvute in Zvishavane
district are reaping from benefits from conserving a wet land for nine
years.They planted a maize crop on five hectares and the maize is almost
ready for harvest.

The revelation came at a belated World Wetlands
Day provincial commemorations at Chebvute vlei last week.

In a speech
read on his behalf by Zvishavane-Ngezi MP, Obert Matshalaga, Environmental
Management Agency Board member for Environment protection, Devious Marongwe
commended the Chebvute commnity for preserving the wetland.

He said it is
not the community which only benefits but the environment as
well.

"The community at Chebvute vlei have learnt the concept of
co-existence and hence managed to restore the status of this wetland with
areas around it benefitting from its conservation.

"An integration of
management practice such as the one designed and implemented at Chebvute
sustains the environment and the local beneficiaries not only thrive but
also benefit downstream populations," said Marongwe.

Marongwe said EMA
gives its full support to Chebvute for their initiative to protect wetlands.
He called upon traditional leaders, local authorities and all environment
friendly citizens to partner with EMA and Forestry Commission to conserve
the wetlands and forests around Chebvute vlei and in Zimbabwe at
large.

Matshalaga, who is the MP for the area promised to assist the
community add other projects to Chebvute vlei like bee keeping, fish
farming, citrus growing and a dairy project so as to diversify from crop
cultivation.

Wetlands offer a diverse of benefits like water
purification, flood mitigation, water provision, medicinal plants and as
habitats for animal and plant species.

High Court To Preside Over Ag'S Appeal Against Mwonzoraand Villagers' Bail Order

HRD’s
Alert

28
February 2011

HIGH COURT TO PRESIDE OVER AG’S APPEAL AGAINST MWONZORA AND
VILLAGERS’ BAIL ORDER

Nyanga North
Member of Parliament and Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) co-chairperson
Hon. Douglas Mwonzora and 23
villagers will remain incarcerated at Mutare Remand Prison until Friday when the
High Court will consider an appeal against their bail order which was filed on
Friday 25 February 2011 by the Attorney General’s Office.

Hon. Mwonzora
and the 23 villagers who were arrested two weeks ago and charged with violating
section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for public
violence were granted bail by Nyanga Magistrate Ignatio Mhene on Monday 21 February
2011.

But Magistrate
Mhene’s bail order was vetoed after State
prosecutor, Tirivanhu Mutyasiri invoked the notorious Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act (CPEA) to suspend the bail order which had been granted to Hon.
Mwonzora and the villagers.

Edmore Nyazamba, a law officer in the AG’s Office filed the appeal which was only
served on Hon. Mwonzora’s lawyers Jeremiah Bamu and Tawanda Zhuwarara of Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) on Monday 28 February 2011.

Free the Forty-Five
Now!

Munyaradzi Gwisai, co-ordinator of the Internationalist
Socialist Organisation organised a meeting on Saturday, 19th February, to
discuss the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Gwisai and 44 others (including a
Kubatana member of staff) were arrested. Subsequently they are being charged
with treason.

That means YOU, ME, Gwisai, Mugabe himself, the ice cream
seller and the airtime vendor could all be charged with treason.

Why?
Because hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have been watching the events in
North Africa unfold on satellite TV. We’ve been reading about it in a number of
newspapers and magazines freely available in Zimbabwe. We've been following news
on the Internet, and we have been listening to radio broadcasts. We have been
talking about the political events in North Africa in supermarkets, pubs, on the
soccer fields and in our homes. We’ve been writing about Tunisia and Egypt in
emails, in blogs, in columns on web sites and on FaceBook pages.

In other
words we are an integral part of the Forty-Five unjustly
incarcerated.

Speak out now. Join the campaign to Free the
Forty-Five.ACTION:

Please text or email
Kubatana a message of support and solidarity for the Forty-Five and we will
deliver these messages to them to keep their spirits up. Join Us. Share the
Word. Get your fingers working for freedom.

At every opportunity we must
protect our right to free speech, and challenge any attempt to silence
us.

Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Watch : Issue
24

Nearly two and a half years since the
formation of the inclusive government Zimbabwe seems no closer to finding and
establishing a unity government. On the one hand, President Mugabe and Zanu-PF
are calling for an end to the troubled political union, and pushing for early
elections while the MDC-T led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai perseveres for the
full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Zanu-PF, with the
support of the armed forces, is seemingly gearing up for a brutal pre-election
campaign of propaganda, intimidation and violence, largely funded through
misused government funds, profits from illegal diamond mining and sales, aided
by well-wishers Libya and China.

In the month of January 2011, 90 media articles
were catalogued for this edition of the Zimbabwe Inclusive Government (ZIG)
Watch. Each recorded article signifies a unique breach of the terms set out in
the GPA. By categorising these articles according to the nature of the breach,
we have generated representative statistics.

Violations in the form of intimidation, hate
speech, threats and brutality remains in first place, but with a significantly
higher percentage of 38 reports (42.2% of total). In second place are cases of
corruption, or efforts to entrench corrupt practices, with 14 instances (15.6%).
Cases of legal harassment were third, with 9 articles (10.0%) and subversion of
legal processes came fourth with 8 articles (8.9%). In total, these four
categories of breaches accounted for 76.7% of the total analysed.

Within these categories, Zanu-PF were
accountable for 94.2% of the violations thereby placing Zanu-PF as agents that
were either responsible for, or involved in, 95.6% of all breaches recorded.
34.1% of those breaches involved preparations by Zanu-PF for control and
manipulation of a possible election in 2011, with 60.0% of those involving
violence and / or intimidation.

Below we list ten articles that are
representative of this month’s media activity. Summaries of all 90 articles and
all previously captured articles, as well as new entries can be seen at
http://www.sokwanele.com/zigwatch.

Starting with cases of violence, abductions,
intimidation, and hate speech, our first article records that Zanu-PF plans to
embark on an onslaught against NGOs ahead of national elections, possibly later
this year. In its Committee Report to the party’s conference in Mutare recently,
Zanu-PF said it would silence NGOs critical of the party and step up its
propaganda apparatus as it builds momentum towards the elections. Zanu PF sees
many of the 2 500 NGOs operating in the country as supporting Prime Minister
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party and by default trying to facilitate regime change.
NGOs provide food and other humanitarian assistance to half of the country’s
population, of which over 85% live below the poverty datum line
(PDL).

In our next case covering violence, more than 80
000 youth militia, war veterans and soldiers are to be deployed across the
country in an army-led drive to ensure victory for President Robert Mugabe in
the next elections that look set to be the bloodiest ever witnessed in Zimbabwe.
A three-month investigation by ZimOnline including interviews with Cabinet
ministers, senior military officers and Zanu-PF functionaries, revealed the
military’s intention to frustrate Tsvangirai through violence and terror. Should
Tsvangirai win the next poll, it is unlikely that the security sector will
accept him as leader of the country. The Joint Operations Command (JOC) plans to
be on the ground well before foreign or local observers, raising fears of
another bloody election.

Surprisingly Zipra war veterans have come up
with a new strategy to counter Zanu-PF violence. The war veterans, who fought
during the war for independence, have urged Zapu supporters in Mashonaland West
province to join Zanu-PF and attend that party’s rallies for their own safety.
The Zipra war veterans have split from the main Zanu-PF-controlled War Veterans
Association headed by Jabulani Sibanda and are currently re-organising their
party structures in resettlement areas east of Karoi in preparation for
elections. They also confirmed the deployment of the army in the rural areas of
Mashonaland West.

Looking at intimidation and threats, Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono warned multinational banks with operations in Zimbabwe
that they would “suffer consequences” if they refuse to give loans to Zanu-PF
officials or others on the Western sanctions lists. In a monetary policy
statement, Gono said such banks are unfairly extending what he called illegal
Western sanctions. Gono accused the banks of paralyzing Zimbabwe’s money markets
by holding domestic deposits rather than recycling them into productive sectors
in the form of loans.

Moving to corruption, our first report shows
that Zanu-PF legislator for Mwenezi, Kudakwashe Basikiti, is using children in
Mwenezi to campaign for the lifting of sanctions imposed on his party members by
the West.. Basikiti has mobilised hundreds of mostly orphaned children in his
constituency and made them sign a petition demanding the immediate lifting of
sanctions imposed on his fellow Zanu-PF members. The petition which was being
forwarded to the American and British Embassies read: “The suffering we are
having today is a result of the debilitating sanctions which led to the deaths
of our parents because they could not afford proper medication.” The abuse of
child minors in political matters must not go unnoticed by the international
community.

In our second article dealing with corruption,
the global diamond industry has inadvertently cleared the way for President
Robert Mugabe’s regime to raise millions of dollars from exports according to
campaigners. A University of Zimbabwe political science professor, John Makumbe,
said: “We have just seen the appearance of £20-million worth of farming inputs —
tractors, seeds, tools and fertiliser. That can only have come from underhand
diamond deals. Zimbabwean pro-democracy campaigners are divided over Kimberly
Process certification. In November, Mugabe’s minister of mines, Obert Mpofu,
admitted that diamonds to the value of £100-million had been sold to India
despite the KP ban in force at the time…Without the KP agreement Mugabe and his
people sell diamonds anyway”.

The issue of the formation of a Matabele state
has suddenly come to prominence, with Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri
ordering police to monitor and arrest activists who have launched a campaign to
breakaway from the rest of the country. This follows the launch of the militant
and radical Mthwakazi Liberation Front, a movement calling for the independence
of the region claiming that its people have been marginalised for too long and
face discrimination everyday at work places and tertiary
institutions.

Turning our attention to matters legal, the
secret panel appointed by Attorney General, Johannes Tomana, to examine the
possibility of criminal conduct by individuals named in the WikiLeaks cables is
comprised oflawyers connected to Zanu-PF. Tomana refused to name members of the
team, “to protect their professional integrity and … independence”. However, it
has emerged that four of the five-member team (Terence Hussein, Simplicious
Chihambakwe, Farai Mutamangira , and Gerald Mlotshwa) have connections with
Mugabe and senior Zanu-PF officials –thereby subverting the legality of the
grouping.

Zanu-PF has started registering local members
for the allocation of sugar cane fields in the Triangle and Hippo Valley
estates. It appears preparations are under way for a takeover of the
agricultural assets on the estates under the Indigenization Act. Business Forum
Secretary Roy Magosvongwe said the move to take over the properties would be
economically damaging given the importance of the sugar plantations.

Lastly we note an article showing Zanu-PF’s
disregard of the right to Freedom of Speech in which President Mugabe’s
spokesperson George Charamba ordered all state media editors to go all out and
attack Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of elections which he insisted
will be held this year. Charamba reportedly urged editors to continue with
propaganda in support of Mugabe saying Tsvangirai should never be allowed to
rule Zimbabwe.

Onslaught on NGOs ahead of
electionsZimbabwe Standard, The (ZW): 02/01/2011

Zanu-PF has resolved to embark on an onslaught
on NGOs sympathetic to Prime Minister Tsvangirai as well as oiling its rusty
propaganda machinery ahead of national elections likely later this year. In its
Committee Report to the party’s conference in Mutare recently, Zanu-PF said it
would silence vocal NGOs and at the same time step up its propaganda apparatus
as it builds momentum towards the elections. President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF
accuses most of the 2 500 NGOs operating in the country of supporting Tsvangirai
(MDC), to facilitate regime change. NGOs provide food and other humanitarian
assistance to half of the country’s population, of which over 85% live below the
poverty datum line (PDL).

More than 80 000 youth militia, war veterans and
soldiers will be deployed across the country in an army-led drive to ensure
victory for President Robert Mugabe in the next elections that look set to be
the bloodiest ever witnessed in Zimbabwe. A three-month investigation by
ZimOnline that including interviews and discussions with Cabinet ministers,
senior military officers and Zanu-PF functionaries, revealed that Zimbabwe’s top
generals intend to thwart Tsvangirai through violence and terror, some bragging
they would topple the Prime Minister should he somehow emerge the winner of the
polls. The Joint Operations Command (JOC) plan to intervene at an earlier stage
in the process, well before foreign or even local observers are on the
ground.

TENGWE – War veterans who fought under Zipra
during the war for independence have urged Zapu supporters in Mashonaland West
province to join Zanu-PF and attend that party’s rallies for their own safety.
The Zipra war said they have split from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans Associations (ZNLWVA) headed by Jabulani Sibanda and are currently
re-organising their party structures in resettlement areas around Tengwe 50 km
east of Karoi town in preparation for elections. The war veterans also confirmed
the deployment of the army in the rural areas of Mashonaland West. During the
liberation war Zipra guerrillas who had military bases in Zambia operated in
Hurungwe, Makonde and Kariba tribal trust lands.

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has warned
multinational banks with operations in Zimbabwe that they would suffer
consequences if they refuse to make loans to Zanu-PF officials or others on
Western sanctions lists. In a monetary policy statement posted to the RBZ
website, Gono said such banks are unfairly extending what he called illegal
Western sanctions. He said such banks have been refusing loans to sanctioned
individuals and companies since the current government of national unity was
formed in 2009. Gono accused the banks of paralyzing Zimbabwe’s money markets by
holding domestic deposits rather than recycling them into productive sectors in
the form of loans.

Zanu-PF MP Using Children To Campaign
Against SanctionsRadioVOP: 04/01/2011

Mwenezi – Zanu-PF legislator for Mwenezi,
Kudakwashe Basikiti, is using children here to campaign for the lifting of
sanctions imposed on his party members by the west for human rights abuses.
Basikiti early this week mobilised hundreds of mostly orphaned children in his
constituency and made them sign a petition demanding the immediate lifting of
sanctions imposed by the west on his fellow Zanu-PF members. The petition which
was being forwarded to the American and British Embassies read: “The suffering
we are having today is a result of the debilitating sanctions which led to the
deaths of our parents because they could not afford proper medication,” much to
the applause of the party supporters.

Mugabe being helped by diamond
industryMail and Guardian Online, The (RSA): 30/01/2011

The global diamond industry has controversially
cleared the way for President Robert Mugabe’s regime to raise millions of
dollars from exports, according to campaigners. ‘Underhand deals’ A University
of Zimbabwe political science professor, John Makumbe, said: “We have just seen
the appearance of £20-million of farming inputs — tractors, seeds, tools and
fertiliser. That can only have come from underhand diamond deals.” Zimbabwean
pro-democracy campaigners are divided over KP certification. In November,
Mugabe’s minister of mines, Obert Mpofu, admitted that £100-million of diamonds
had been sold to India despite the KP ban in force at the time. Makumbe said:
“Without the KP agreement Mugabe and his people sell diamonds
anyway”.

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has
ordered police to crack down on political activists in Matabeleland who have
launched a campaign to breakaway from the rest of the country. Chihuri has
ordered his commanders in the province to arrest the pro-independence activists.
Chihuri’s order follows the launch of the militant and radical Mthwakazi
Liberation Front, a movement which advocates for the independence of the region
claiming that its people have been marginalised for too long and face
discrimination everyday at work places and tertiary institutions. A radio signal
from Police Headquarters in Harare to Matabeleland police stations, ordered them
to be on high alert to monitor and arrest activists calling for a breakaway
state of Mthwakazi.

The secret panel appointed by Attorney General,
Johannes Tomana to examine the possibility of criminal conduct by individuals
named in the WikiLeaks cables is packed with lawyers connected to Zanu-PF. The
attorney general refused to name members of the 5-man team, claiming this was
necessary to protect their “professional integrity and … independence”. However,
it has emerged that four of the five-member team have connections with Mugabe
and senior Zanu-PF officials. Terence Hussein, Simplicious Chihambakwe, Farai
Mutamangira have worked for Mugabe and Zanu-PF officials before while Gerald
Mlotshwa is said to be related to Presidential Affairs Minister, Didymus
Mutasa.

Zanu-PF party have started registering local
members for the allocation of sugar cane fields in the Triangle and Hippo Valley
estates. Correspondent Irwin Chifera reported on the apparent preparations for a
takeover of the agricultural assets on the estates under the Indigenization Act.
Triangle Sugar Ltd. is owned by Tongaat Hulett of South Africa, which also holds
a controlling stake in the Hippo Valley Estate. Business Forum Secretary Roy
Magosvongwe said the move to take over the properties would be economically
damaging given the importance of the sugar plantations. Magosvongwe said he sees
an emerging threat to businesses and hoped the pattern would not repeat that of
the farm invasions that began in 2000.

State Editors urged to attack
TsvangiraiZimbabwean, The (ZW): 20/01/2011

President Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba
has ordered all state media editors to go all out in attack against Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of elections which he insisted will be held
this year. Charamba was addressing the editors at a strategic meeting held in
Nyanga two weeks ago. He reportedly urged the editors to continue pouring out
propaganda in support of Mugabe saying Tsvangirai should never be allowed to
rule Zimbabwe as he is a sellout. A senior editor from one of the state media
newspapers said Charamba had called the meeting to ensure that all of them
understood the need to ensure that they campaigned for Mugabe during elections
this year.

BILL WATCH 6/2011 of 28th February [Parliament adjourns to 8th March]

Both the House of Assembly and the Senate met on 22nd and 23rd
February,

then both Houses adjourned until Tuesday 8th
March

Inclusive
Government Update

The
President returned
to the country on 20th February after a week away for a medical check-up. He
had a brief meeting with the Prime Minister the next day.

Cabinet did not meet while
the President was away, but did meet on
Tuesday 22nd February. [The only other Cabinet meeting this year was on 8th
February.] No extra Cabinet meeting was scheduled although there is a
backlog of work awaiting Cabinet attention.

South
African facilitation team members
arrived in Harare on Tuesday to work with representatives from each of the three
GPA parties and others on the “roadmap” to the next elections. They met JOMIC ,
MDC-T, MDC, ZAPU, ZANU-PF and, on Friday, the party principals.

The
Mutambara/Ncube dispute has still
not been resolved and will not be until the end of the court case brought by
dissenting MDC-M members challenging the validity of the leadership changes made
at the party’s congress in January.

Rising
violence in the country is
causing further rifts between the two main parties.

Parliamentary Update

In the House of Assembly Last Week

Bills The Deposit Protection Corporation Bill did not come up for
Second Reading. The Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance, Economic Planning
and Investment Promotion has asked for more time to consider the Bill in the
light of representations made to it by the banking sector.

Two Bills are under consideration by the Parliamentary Legal
Committee [PLC]:

·General Laws Amendment Bill[Electronic version available][See Bill Watch 41/2010 of 2010 for an opinion that the Bill’s clause
imposing copyright protection on the texts of Acts, statutory instruments and
court judgments is unconstitutional.]

·Small Enterprises Development Corporation Amendment
Bill.

Both Bills have had their First Reading, but there will be no further
proceedings until the PLC has reported on their consistency or otherwise with
the Declaration of Rights and other provisions of the Constitution. The PLC
meets on Tuesday 1st March.

Motions Tuesday’s sitting might have ended without debate on any of the 16
agenda items had not Hon F.M. Sibanda made a brief contribution to the take-note
motion on the Education Portfolio Committee’s report on early childhood
development. On Wednesday there was brief debate on portfolio committee reports
on Air Zimbabwe, the Civil Aviation Authority and the operations of NSSA.

Question Time [Wednesday]

Questions Without Notice Standing Orders restrict questions without notice to questions
seeking information on matters of Government policy, although the Speaker
occasionally allows some relaxation of this rule if a Minister is prepared to
answer a question seeking factual information. When members want factual
information, questions should be submitted in writing and they are printed in
the Order Paper. This gives Ministers time to obtain the required information.
Topics covered last week included:

·Cabinet responsibility for Budget Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara confirmed that formulation of the
national Budget is a collective Cabinet responsibility and that if individual
Ministers have problems with Budget allocations the proper forum to air them is
Cabinet rather than political platforms.

·Security forces personnel and Constituency Development
Funds The Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs stated
that security force personnel should not be playing any part in the
administration of CDFs.

·Political activities at schools Asked about political harassment of teachers, the Minister of
Education said he had issued a circular banning the use of schools for political
purposes. Later this would also be covered by
regulations.

·Alleged presence of Zimbabwe National Army personnel in
Libya Asked whether press stories about ZNA personnel being in Libya in
support of Colonel Gaddafi were true, the Minister of Defence did not answer
directly, but said the Minister of Foreign Affairs might know whether there are
“African mercenaries” in Libya; he did, however, concede that the Defence Act
does not allow serving ZNA members to participate in “events outside this
country where they use arms”.

Written Questions With Notice There were 25 questions on the Order Paper for reply by Ministers,
12 of them dating back to last November. Only one was dealt with, by the
Minister of Education. The other Ministers concerned were not present. Both
the Speaker and MPs expressed dissatisfaction with the absentee Ministers’
cavalier disregard of the House, and Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara undertook
to ensure their presence in future. Both the Prime Minister and the Deputy
Prime Minister have given similar undertakings previously.

On Tuesday the President of the Senate ruled that Ministers and
Deputy Ministers cannot introduce or debate private motions in the Senate,
saying this is the preserve of backbenchers. Following this ruling Senator
Tapela [MDC], Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, was not allowed
to give notice of a motion, although Senator Georgias [ZANU-PF], Deputy Minister
of Public Works, had proposed an anti-sanctions only two weeks before. The
President of the Senate said this had been a mistake. The ruling is regarded as
controversial, given that Standing Orders are silent on the issue and that in
the past Ministers and Deputy Ministers have taken part in debates on private
motions.

Motions

On violence On Tuesday Senator Komichi [MDC-T] introduced his motion condemning
the “unabated incidents of violence in Mbare, Budiriro and surrounding areas and
calling on the police to maintain law and order professionally and bring the
culprits to book. Debate continued on Wednesday. There were some heated
exchanges when members accused each other’s parties of responsibility for
fomenting the violence.

On Inclusive Government’s achievements and failures Deputy Minister Tapela’s notice of this motion was disallowed
[see above], and notice of the motion was then given by Senator S Ncube
[MDC].

The anti-sanctions motion was withdrawn by Deputy Minister Georgias following the Senate
President’s ruling [see above] and it was removed from the Order Paper.

POSA Amendment Bill

The Second Reading debate on Mr Gonese’s Private Member’s Bill to
amend the Public Order and Security Act [POSA] did not commence. It is unlikely
to come up until Parliament completes processing the amendment to Standing
Orders which will permit Mr Gonese to speak to his Bill in the Senate – the
amendment was approved in principle by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee
on 14th February [see Bill Watch 5/2010]. [Electronic version of Bill available]

Requesting documents from Veritas

Requests for electronic versions of documents listed as “available”
in this bulletin should be emailed to veritas@yoafrica.com

Update on Bills

Bills Passed and Awaiting Presidential Assent and Gazetting as Acts
[Printing
of these Acts for the President’s signature is not yet
complete.]

Bills in House of Assembly [See In the House of Assembly This Week, above]

Bills Gazetted and Awaiting Introduction

National Incomes and Pricing Commission Amendment Bill[gazetted 5th November 2010]. [Electronic version available]This Bill provides for the downgrading of the National Incomes and
Pricing Commission to a board with much reduced powers and functions. Powers to
fix prices and pricing standards and control rentals, incomes and service
charges are repealed. The board will be an advisory body tasked with research
and monitoring functions. Price control will be covered by regulations and
orders under the Control of Goods Act, as it was before 2007.

Bills being printed for presentation in Parliament – None

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take legal responsibility for information
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